Systems and methods for manufacturing an orthodontic appliance

ABSTRACT

A distributed computer system for manufacturing an orthodontic appliance for a subject is provided. The system comprises: a server communicatively couplable to electronic devices associated with sets of users, the sets of users comprising: a first set of users for providing preliminary orthodontic treatment plans for subjects, a second set of users for providing input to the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and a third set of users for manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implement at least a portion of finalized orthodontic treatment plans, the finalized orthodontic treatment plans being based on a given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan and a given input from a user of the second set of users to the given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan.

CROSS-REFERENCE

The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/366,304 filed on Jul. 2, 2021, the content of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present technology relates generally to the field of orthodontics;and, in particular, to a distributed computer system for and a method ofmanufacturing an orthodontic appliance for a subject.

BACKGROUND

In orthodontics, treatments for achieving alignment of malposed teeth ina subject may include applying dental appliances causing subject's teethto move to a desired position thereof, for example, that associated withtheir alignment. Planning the orthodontic treatment may typicallyinclude a number of health care professionals, potentially representingvarious entities and potentially located in different geographicallocations.

One of such entities may be an orthodontic clinic where an operator maycollect data pertaining to the orthodontic treatment of the subject,such as images of subject's arch forms, a medical history of thesubject, and the like, for devising a preliminary orthodontic treatmentplan. Generally, the orthodontic treatment may comprise a certain numberof steps in which different orthodontic appliances are applied to thesubject's teeth. Thus, the operator may further communicate certainparts of the preliminary orthodontic treatment plan, such as the archform images corresponding to the steps of the treatment, to anotherentity (a laboratory, for example) for making the orthodontic appliancesfor providing them to the subject.

However, for various reasons, the preliminary orthodontic treatment planmay need to be revised during or between the treatment steps. This maybe performed, for example, by the same or a different operator. Inanother example, the orthodontic treatment plan may be revised by ahigher-level-skill orthodontic practitioner, such as an orthodontist ora maxillo-facial surgeon, for example, to improve the efficacy of theorthodontic treatment at a given step and/or reduce the discomfortcaused to the subject after a first trial of the respective orthodonticappliance. By doing so, another version of the orthodontic treatmentplan may be devised.

As it may be appreciated, when the above workflow is to be performed formany subjects or when the workflow for a given orthodontic treatmentplan involves many operators and practitioners attending to the givenorthodontic treatment plan at different steps thereof, a plurality ofdifferent versions of the given orthodontic treatment plan may becreated, and can become easily confused. Furthermore, a given laboratorymay collaborate with many different orthodontic practitioners. Workingwith the most up-to-date version of the given orthodontic treatment planmay become important. Working with out-dated versions may result in anineffective treatment for the subject, not to mention wasted time andresources.

An example problematic situation is as follows: the operator creates theorthodontic treatment plan, uploading it into a computer system whichthe orthodontist can access through their private system account. Theorthodontist may start editing the given orthodontic treatment plan, atthe same time as the operator also edits it. In this situation, theremay be a version conflict, resulting in a loss of the changes made byeither or both ones of the operator and the orthodontist.

Certain prior art approaches have been proposed related to shared accessto information relating the development of the orthodontic treatmentplan at the computer system.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,946,725-B1 issued on Apr. 17, 2018, assigned to GoogleLLC, and entitled “Systems and Methods for Incremental Loading ofCollaboratively Generated Presentations” discloses systems and methodsfor incrementally communicating a document to a client computer. Timeconsistent views of the document are maintained throughout theincremental downloading through use of a cryptographically securedpermissions token identifying a version of the document the user ispermitted to access.

United States Patent Application Publication No.: 2019/155,789 publishedon May 23, 2019, assigned to Box Inc, and entitled “Method and Apparatusfor Synchronization of Items with Read-only Permissions in a Cloud-basedEnvironment” discloses techniques for enabling synchronization of items(e.g., folders or files) in a cloud-based environment. In oneembodiment, a method comprises, upon receiving a request from acollaborator to synchronize an item stored in the workspace, verifyingif the collaborator has permission for downloading the item. The methodfurther comprises, if the collaborator has permission for downloadingthe item, sending the item to the collaborator. The method furthercomprises synchronizing the item by automatically pushing an updatedversion of the item unilaterally from the cloud-based environment to thecollaborator regardless of whether the collaborator has performed anymodification to the sent item. Among other advantages, embodimentsdisclosed herein provide capabilities to synchronize items incloud-based platforms, especially where items are often opened/editedamong the collaborators.

A web document entitled “Cloud Storage for Healthcare” placed by vBoxxat vboxxcloud.com/healthcare-cloud discloses a cloud-based collaborativeenvironment with a capability of assigning rights to various usersthereof and storing data for shared access.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,703,798-B2 issued on Jul. 11, 2017, assigned toCORALTREE Inc, and entitled “System and Method for File Sharing andUpdating” discloses a method and system for sharing changes made by anapplication to a file on one computer, coherently with other computers,over the Internet. If the application changes multiple files (alsoreferred to as a file group), changes made to all the files are sharedtogether coherently with other computers over the Internet. Coherenceover multiple file copies and file group copies is maintained whetherusers work on files online or offline. A ‘File Upload Lock’ ismaintained on a Cloud Server for ensuring coherent sharing of changesmade to files. Embodiments include two file syncing processes, variouslydescribed as ‘Incremental File Upload’ or ‘Incremental File Download’and ‘Delta File Upload’ or ‘Delta File Download’. Embodiments alsoencompass an ‘Explorer’ software tool and user interface that displaysfolders and files on user devices with pertinent details from the deviceand the Cloud Server.

United States Patent Application Publication No.: 2013/151,466-A1published on Jun. 13, 2013, assigned to Microsoft Technology LicensingLLC, and entitled “Controlling Access to Documents Using File Locks”discloses systems and methods for controlling access to document fileson a document server. One example system includes document files storedon a document server, at least one of the document files referencing afile lock, and a document access processing module. The example documentaccess processing module includes a file sharing processing module thatdetermines a coauthoring status of a software application of a clientcomputer requesting access to the document file, and a file lockprocessing module that stores one or more file locks and that controlsthe setting and resetting of file locks. The example document accessprocessing module uses the coauthoring status of the softwareapplication and the file lock status of a document file to determinewhether a software application is permitted to have write access to thedocument file.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,566,115-B2 issued on Oct. 22, 2013, assigned toNewsILike Media Group Inc, and entitled “Syndicating Surgical Data in aHealthcare Environment” discloses systems and methods for syndicationand management of structured and unstructured data to assistinstitutional healthcare delivery, healthcare providers' practices,healthcare providers' group practices, collaborative academic researchand decision making in healthcare, including through the utilization ofmedical devices and healthcare pools.

U.S. Pat. No. 10,504,198-B1 issued on Dec. 10, 2019, assigned to REWARDHEALTH SCIENCES Inc, and entitled “Longitudinal Multi-author CarePlanning and Management System with User-tailored Care Plan Hierarchythat Propagates based on Care Responsibility Information” discloses amethod and system for care planning and management that provides apatient-centered single source of truth to foster teamwork and improvedquality of care. The system facilitates creation of multi-authorstructured care plans through derivation of care relationships, careresponsibilities and care plan elements to pre-populate care plans, anduses a hierarchical topic catalog and associated structured sentencetemplates and care plan templates to facilitate the completion of careplans. It aids interdisciplinary input through workflow-enabled routingof draft care plans, and rules-driven co-signing. The system allows eachof multiple authors to separately tailor the sort order, hierarchy andinformation prominence of care plan structured sentences. The systemuses care relationship and care responsibility information to optimizethe propagation of care plan view tailoring instructions amongco-authors. Finally, the system facilitates care plan execution usingworkflow automation technology to track and coordinate the process ofdelivering each ordered service.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,946,725-B1 issued on Apr. 17, 2018, assigned to GoogleInc, and entitled “Systems and Methods for Incremental Loading ofCollaboratively Generated Presentations” discloses systems and methodsfor incrementally communicating a document to a client computer. Timeconsistent views of the document are maintained throughout theincremental downloading through use of a cryptographically securedpermissions token identifying a version of the document the user ispermitted to access.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present technology to ameliorate at least some ofthe inconveniences present in the prior art.

Developers of the present technology have devised a distributed computersystem comprising a server communicatively couplable to workstations ofthe users involved in the process of development of the orthodontictreatment. More specifically, the developers have appreciated that acollaborative access to the orthodontic treatment may be moreconveniently organized for all parties involved in the developmentthereof if the orthodontic treatment plan could be stored and modifiedsolely on the server.

Further, to prevent conflicts between the versions of the orthodontictreatment plan created by different users, the server may be configuredto implement certain restrictive policies allowing, for example, accessonly to one user at a time, subsequently restricting access to any otheruser. To that end, changes made by a given user (such as theorthodontist) working on the orthodontic treatment plan may be stored ina separate new version thereof. Additionally, at least one other usermay be notified of the creation of the new version of the orthodontictreatment plan by the given user, and may thus attend to implementingtheir consecutive steps in the development of the orthodontic treatmentplan.

The developers have also realized that computational burden on theserver may be reduced if each new version of the orthodontic treatmentplan is not created every time a respective previous version thereof isaccessed by the given user, rather, by contrast, is created only ifthere have been changes made to the respective previous version of theorthodontic treatment plan. Such an approach may allow avoidingcreating, storing, and transmitting unnecessary copies of theorthodontic treatment plan among the users, which may increaseoperational efficiency of the server.

Additionally, the developers have further appreciated that such anarchitecture of the computer system may allow saving changes made to theorthodontic treatment plan by certain users (for example, doctors) in acentralized manner for further predicting, for example, using a trainedmachine-learning algorithm, preferences of those particular users whenautomatically generating further orthodontic treatment plans associatedwith them. This may, for example, allow saving time on fine-tuning theorthodontic treatment plan by higher-level practitioners, which, inturn, increases efficiency of the orthodontic treatment plan developmentprocess.

Thus, in accordance with a first broad aspect of the present technology,there is provided a distributed computer system for manufacturing anorthodontic appliance for a subject. The system comprises: a servercommunicatively couplable to electronic devices associated with sets ofusers, a given electronic device configured to implement a thin clientfor accessing the server. The sets of users comprise: a first set ofusers for providing preliminary orthodontic treatment plans forsubjects, a second set of users for providing input to the preliminaryorthodontic treatment plans, and a third set of users for manufacturingorthodontic appliances to implement at least a portion of finalizedorthodontic treatment plans, the finalized orthodontic treatment plansbeing based on a given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan and agiven input from a user of the second set of users to the givenpreliminary orthodontic treatment plan. The server has a processorconfigured to execute a method, which comprises, for a given subject:accessing a preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan for the givensubject from a first electronic device associated with a first user ofthe first set of users; preventing access, to the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan during the accessing, by electronic devicesassociated with other users of the first set of users, all users of thesecond set of users, and all users of the third set of users; storingthe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in a memory of theserver; on receipt of a request to access the stored preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan from any user of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users, accessing a predeterminedrule of access, and determining a next user of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users to provide access to thestored preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan; providing accessto an electronic device of the determined next user, a copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan whilst retaining thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in the memory;determining whether changes have been made to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan by applying a hashfunction to a meta data structure of the copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan, and if changes have been made to the copy ofthe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, saving those changesin the memory as a new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan; obtaining input regarding the saved new version of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan being a given finalizedorthodontic treatment plan, and providing access to a given user of thethird set of users to the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan formanufacturing the orthodontic appliance according to at least a portionof the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, the hashfunction comprises a sum of md5 hashes.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, theprocessor is further configured to prevent access, to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan whilst the next user hasaccess to the copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan, by electronic devices associated with other users of the first setof users, the second set of users, and the third set of users.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, after thenew version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan issaved, on receipt of a request to access the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan from another given user of the first set ofusers, the second set of users and the third set of users, accessing thepredetermined rule of access, and determining a next other user toprovide access to the saved new version of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, theprocessor is further configured, for a given user of the second set ofusers, to apply a trained machine learning algorithm to providesuggested inputs to the preliminary orthodontic treatment plan accordingto preferences of the given user.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, theprocessor is configured to train a machine learning algorithm onorthodontic treatment plan preferences of a given user of the second setof users for providing suggested inputs to preliminary orthodontictreatment plans according to those preferences.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, the secondset of users are orthodontic dentists or doctors.

In some implementations of the distributed computer system, certainusers may be associated with more than one of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users.

In accordance with a second broad aspect of the present technology,there is provided a server for manufacturing an orthodontic appliancefor a subject. The server is communicatively couplable to electronicdevices associated with sets of users. A given electronic device isconfigured to implement a thin client for accessing the server. The setsof users comprise: a first set of users for providing preliminaryorthodontic treatment plans for subjects, a second set of users forproviding input to the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and athird set of users for manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implementat least a portion of finalized orthodontic treatment plans, thefinalized orthodontic treatment plans being based on a given preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan and a given input from a user of the secondset of users to the given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan. Theserver includes: a processor and a non-transitory memory storinginstructions. The processor, upon executing the instructions, isconfigured to: provide access to a preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan for a given subject by a first electronic deviceassociated with a first user of the first set of users; while providingaccess to the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan by thefirst electronic device, prevent access to the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan by electronic devices associated with otherusers of the first set of users, all users of the second set of users,and all users of the third set of users; store the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan in the non-transitory memory; on receipt of arequest to access the stored preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan from any user of the first set of users, second set of users andthird set of users, access a predetermined rule of access to determine anext user of the first set of users, second set of users and third setof users to provide access to the stored preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan; provide access to a copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan by an electronic device of the determinednext user, whilst retaining the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan in the non-transitory memory; determine whether changeshave been made to the copy of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan by applying a hash function to a meta data structure ofthe copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, and ifchanges have been made to the copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan, save the changes in the non-transitorymemory as a new version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan; obtain input regarding the saved new version of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan being a given finalized orthodontictreatment plan and provide access to a given user of the third set ofusers to the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan formanufacturing the orthodontic appliance according to at least a portionof the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan.

In some implementations of the server, the processor is furtherconfigured to prevent access, to the copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan whilst the determined next user has access tothe copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, byelectronic devices associated with other users of the first set ofusers, the second set of users, and the third set of users.

In some implementations of the server, after the new version of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan is saved, on receipt of arequest to access the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment planfrom another given user of the first set of users, the second set ofusers and the third set of users, the processor is further configured toaccess the predetermined rule of access to determine a next other userto provide access to the saved new version of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan.

In some implementations of the server, for a given user of the secondset of users, the processor is further configured to apply a trainedmachine learning algorithm to provide suggested inputs to thepreliminary orthodontic treatment plan according to preferences of thegiven user.

In some implementations of the server, the processor is furtherconfigured to train a machine learning algorithm on orthodontictreatment plan preferences of a given user of the second set of usersfor providing suggested inputs to preliminary orthodontic treatmentplans according to those preferences.

In accordance with a third broad aspect of the present technology, thereis provided a method of manufacturing an orthodontic appliance for asubject. The method is executable by a server including a processor. Theserver is communicatively couplable to electronic devices associatedwith sets of users, a given electronic device being configured toimplement a thin client for accessing the server. The sets of userscomprise: a first set of users for providing preliminary orthodontictreatment plans for subjects, a second set of users for providing inputto the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and a third set of usersfor manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implement at least a portionof finalized orthodontic treatment plans, the finalized orthodontictreatment plans being based on a given preliminary orthodontic treatmentplan and a given input from a user of the second set of users to thegiven preliminary orthodontic treatment plan. The method, for a givensubject, comprises: providing, by the processor, access to a preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan for the given subject by a firstelectronic device associated with a first user of the first set ofusers; during the providing access by the first electronic device,preventing access, to the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan, by electronic devices associated with other users of the first setof users, all users of the second set of users, and all users of thethird set of users; storing, by the processor, the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan in a memory of the server; on receipt of arequest to access the stored preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan from any user of the first set of users, second set of users andthird set of users, accessing, by the processor, a predetermined rule ofaccess to determine a next user of the first set of users, second set ofusers and third set of users to provide access to the stored preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan; providing, by the processor, accessto an electronic device of the determined next user, a copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan whilst retaining thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in the memory;determining, by the processor, whether changes have been made to thecopy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan by applying ahash function to a meta data structure of the copy of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan, and if changes have been made to thecopy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, saving thosechanges in the memory as a new version of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan; obtaining, by the processor, input regardingthe saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan being a given finalized orthodontic treatment plan, and providing,by the processor, access to a given user of the third set of users tothe given finalized orthodontic treatment plan for manufacturing theorthodontic appliance according to at least a portion of the givenfinalized orthodontic treatment plan.

In some implementations of the method, the hash function comprises a sumof md5 hashes.

In some implementations of the method, the method further comprisespreventing, by the processor, access, to the copy of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan whilst the next user has access tothe copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, byelectronic devices associated with other users of the first set ofusers, the second set of users, and the third set of users.

In some implementations of the method, after the new version of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan is saved, on receipt of arequest to access the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment planfrom another given user of the first set of users, the second set ofusers and the third set of users, accessing, by the processor, thepredetermined rule of access to determine a next other user to provideaccess to the saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan.

In some implementations of the method, the method further comprises, fora given user of the second set of users, applying a trained machinelearning algorithm to provide suggested inputs to the preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan according to preferences of the given user.

In some implementations of the method, a given one of the second set ofusers is one of an orthodontist, a dentist, and a doctor.

In some implementations of the method, certain users may be associatedwith more than one of the first set of users, second set of users andthird set of users.

In the context of the present specification, the term “orthodontictreatment” is broadly referred to as any type of medical interventionaimed at correcting malocclusions associated with the subject's teeth ormoving the patient's teeth for any reason, including surgical andnon-surgical manipulations, such as, but not limited to, using one ormore of aligners, brackets, multi-strand wires, strips, retainers, andplates. Further, the orthodontic treatment, as referred to herein, maybe determined manually by a professional practitioner (such as anorthodontist, a maxillofacial surgeon, for example), automatically by aspecific software based on image data and input parameters associatedwith the subject, and/or a combination of manual and automatic.

Also, as used herein, determining the orthodontic treatment may includeverification of an already determined orthodontic treatment, forexample, by modelling an effect of the determined orthodontic treatmentusing respective 3D models (such as 3D meshes) of the subject's teeth.The verification may be conducted, for example, to ensure safety andeffectiveness of the determined orthodontic treatment for the subject.

In the context of the present specification, unless expressly providedotherwise, a computer system may refer, but is not limited to, an“electronic device”, an “operation system”, a “system”, a“computer-based system”, a “controller unit”, a “control device” and/orany combination thereof appropriate to the relevant task at hand.

In the context of the present specification, unless expressly providedotherwise, the expression “computer-readable medium” and “memory” areintended to include media of any nature and kind whatsoever,non-limiting examples of which include RAM, ROM, disks (CD-ROMs, DVDs,floppy disks, hard disk drives, etc.), USB keys, flash memory cards,solid state-drives, and tape drives.

In the context of the present specification, a “database” is anystructured collection of data, irrespective of its particular structure,the database management software, or the computer hardware on which thedata is stored, implemented or otherwise rendered available for use. Adatabase may reside on the same hardware as the process that stores ormakes use of the information stored in the database or it may reside onseparate hardware, such as a dedicated server or plurality of servers.

In the context of the present specification, unless expressly providedotherwise, the words “first”, “second”, “third”, etc. have been used asadjectives only for the purpose of allowing for distinction between thenouns that they modify from one another, and not for the purpose ofdescribing any particular relationship between those nouns.

Embodiments of the present technology each have at least one of theabove-mentioned object and/or aspects, but do not necessarily have allof them. It should be understood that some aspects of the presenttechnology that have resulted from attempting to attain theabove-mentioned object may not satisfy this object and/or may satisfyother objects not specifically recited herein.

Additional and/or alternative features, aspects and advantages ofembodiments of the present technology will become apparent from thefollowing description, the accompanying drawings and the appendedclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present technology, as well as otheraspects and further features thereof, reference is made to the followingdescription which is to be used in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, where:

FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of certain intraoral anatomicalstructures of a subject including a lower arch form and an upper archform of the subject depicting examples of malocclusions of some ofsubject's teeth, in accordance with certain non-limiting embodiments ofthe present technology;

FIGS. 2 and 3 depict a side view and a cross-sectional view through line3-3, respectively, of an orthodontic appliance applied to the subject'steeth that may be configured to treat the malocclusions of the subject'steeth present in FIG. 1 , in accordance with certain non-limitingembodiments of the present technology;

FIG. 4 depicts a schematic diagram of an example computing environmentsuitable for implementing certain non-limiting embodiments of systemsand/or methods of the present technology;

FIG. 5 depicts a schematic diagram of a distributed computer system formanufacturing the orthodontic appliance of FIGS. 2 and 3 for treatingthe malocclusions depicted in FIG. 1 , in accordance with certainembodiments of the present technology;

FIG. 6 depicts an example interface of a digital treatment planningapplication run at the server of the distributed computer system of FIG.5 and used for collaborative access to one or more orthodontic treatmentplans, in accordance with certain non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology;

FIG. 7 depicts a schematic diagram of how communication between theserver and a first set of users, providing preliminary orthodontictreatment plan, is organized within the distributed computer system ofFIG. 5 , in accordance with certain embodiments of the presenttechnology;

FIG. 8 depicts another example interface of the digital treatmentplanning application run at the server of the distributed computersystem of FIG. 5 and used for planning the orthodontic treatment fortreating the malocclusions depicted in FIG. 1 , in accordance withcertain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology;

FIG. 9 depicts schematic diagram of how communication between the serverand a second set of users, providing corrections to the preliminaryorthodontist treatment plan, is organized within the distributedcomputer system of FIG. 5 , in accordance with certain embodiments ofthe present technology;

FIG. 10 depicts a schematic diagram of how communication is organized,within the distributed computer system of FIG. 5 between the server anda third set of users, for manufacturing the orthodontic appliance ofFIGS. 2 and 3 in accordance with a finalized orthodontic treatment planprovided by the second set of users, in accordance with certainembodiments of the present technology; and

FIG. 11 depicts a flowchart of a method for manufacturing theorthodontic appliance of FIGS. 2 and 3 for treating the malocclusionsdepicted in FIG. 1 , according to certain embodiments of the presenttechnology.

It should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified herein,the drawings are not to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain aspects and embodiments of the present technology are directedto methods of and systems for manufacturing an orthodontic appliance fora subject.

More specifically, certain aspects and embodiments of the presenttechnology comprise a distributed computer system for executing aworkflow of manufacturing the orthodontic appliance includingdetermining an orthodontic treatment plan which may involve inputs fromdifferent entities and/or individuals, such as operators and orthodonticpractitioners, for example. According to at least some non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the distributed computer systemmay be configured to provide collaborative access to such entitiesand/or individuals to implement their steps in developing theorthodontic treatment plan avoiding conflicts of versions of theorthodontic treatment plan thereamong. This may be achieved, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, by the distributedcomputer system being configured to provide the access to one of theentities and/or individuals at a time.

Certain embodiments of the present technology minimize, reduce or avoidsome of the problems noted with the prior art. For example, byimplementing certain embodiments of the present technology, efficiencyof the manufacturing the orthodontic appliance may be increased.

For example, the efficiency of the manufacturing the orthodonticappliance can be increased via reducing computational resources of thedistributed computer system on the developing the orthodontic treatmentplan. For example, the reducing the computational resources may beachieved by the distributed computer system being configured to generateand save each new version of the orthodontic treatment plan only in caseof changes made to a previous version of the orthodontic treatmentplan—as opposed to generating each new version of orthodontic treatmentplan every time it is accessed by an other entity and/or individual.

In another example, the efficiency of the manufacturing the orthodonticappliance can be increased through reducing the time spent on thedeveloping the orthodontic treatment plan. In this regard, the reducingthe time for the developing the orthodontic treatment plan may beachieved, according to certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, by saving changes to the orthodontic treatment inassociation with respective entities and/or individuals who have madethose changes, which may be used for predicting, for example, by aspecifically trained machine-learning algorithm, preferences of thoseentities and/or individuals when automatically generating furtherorthodontic treatment plans for other subjects. Such an approach to theautomatic generation of orthodontic treatment plans may help save timeon adjusting the orthodontic treatment plan by certain entities and/orindividuals.

Orthodontic Treatment

With initial reference to FIG. 1 , there is depicted a perspective viewof a lower arch form 10 and an upper arch form 11 of the subject (notdepicted), to which certain aspects and non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology may be applied.

As can be appreciated, the lower arch form 10 includes lower teeth 12and lower gingiva 14; and the upper arch form 11 includes upper teeth 13and upper gingiva 15. Further, in the depicted embodiments of FIG. 1 ,positions of at least some of the lower teeth 12 within the lower archform 10 and those of the upper teeth 13 within the upper arch form 11may be indicative of certain orthodontic disorders of the subject. Forexample, at least a given lower tooth 16 and a given upper tooth 17 aremisaligned within a respective one of the lower arch form 10 and theupper arch form 11. Further, as the given lower tooth 16 is abnormallyembedded within the lower teeth 12 while the given upper tooth 17abnormally protrudes over opposing ones of the lower teeth 12, themisalignment thereof may affect the bite of the teeth, or, in otherwords, cause a malocclusion—that is, an irregular spatialrelationship—between the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13.

Other malocclusions (not depicted) associated with misalignment of lowerteeth 12 relative to each other and the upper teeth 13, according tocertain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, may include,without limitation: overbites, underbites, crossbites, openbites,crowding of some of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13, midlineshift therebetween, and others.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, forresolving the above-mentioned malocclusions, an orthodontic treatmentmay be provided to the subject.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theorthodontic treatment may comprise applying an orthodontic appliance tothe subject's teeth. Generally speaking, the orthodontic appliance maybe configured to exert a respective predetermined force onto at leastsome of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13—such as the givenlower tooth 16 and the given upper tooth 17, causing them to movetowards an aligned position, thereby restoring the normal occlusion ofthe lower teeth 12 relative to upper teeth 13 of the subject. Morespecifically, in the depicted embodiments of FIG. 1 , the orthodonticappliance may be configured to cause the given lower tooth 16 to moveoutwardly between lower teeth adjacent thereto; and further causeclockwise rotation thereof. Further, the orthodontic appliance may beconfigured to cause the given upper tooth 17 to move inwardly. Invarious non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theorthodontic appliance may comprise orthodontic appliances of differenttypes, shapes, sizes and configurations, such as those including,without limitation, aligners, brackets, multi-strand wires, strips,retainers, and plates.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theorthodontic appliance may be selected, in the course of the orthodontictreatment to correct a respective malocclusion. For example, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the orthodonticappliance may include a biteplate (not depicted) used for correcting theoverbites. More specifically, the biteplate may be configured forpreventing front ones of upper teeth 13 overlap front ones of the lowerteeth 12 for extended periods of time.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theorthodontic appliance may include a bitesplint (not depicted), which maybe applied to the lower teeth 12 for correcting the crossbites—a lateralmisalignment of one of the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form 11resulting, for example, in buccal surfaces of some of the upper teeth 13overlapping lingual surfaces of opposing ones thereto of the lower teeth12. To that end, the bitesplint may be configured for preventing thesubject from biting completely, which may further allow correcting thecrossbites.

In specific non-limiting embodiments of the present the presenttechnology, the orthodontic appliance may include at least one aligner.With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 , there is depicted an aligner 20applied to at least some of the lower teeth 12, in accordance withcertain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology. The aligner20 comprises an inner surface 22 and an outer surface 24. The innersurface 22 defines a channel 26, which is configured, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, for receiving crownportions of at least some of the lower teeth 12, such as the given lowertooth 16. However, in other non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the channel 26 of the aligner 20 may be configured toreceive crown portions of all of the lower teeth 12. At least one edge(also referred to herein as an “open edge”) of the channel 26 is shapedfor following a gum line (not depicted) along the lower gingiva 14.

It will be appreciated that, in accordance with certain non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the aligner 20 may be used fortreating different teeth malocclusions, including but not limited to oneor more of: closing interdental spaces (“space closure”),creating/widening interdental spaces, tooth rotation, toothintrusion/extrusion, and tooth translation, to name a few. It shouldfurther be noted that in certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, applying the aligner 20 to the lower teeth 12 may furtherinclude applying specific attachments thereto.

As may become apparent, the aligner 20 may be designed in such a waythat its inner surface 22 is configured to impose respective forces onone or more of the lower teeth 12 to obtain a desired position of thelower teeth 12 at a given stage of the orthodontic treatment.

Needles to say that, although in the depicted embodiments of FIGS. 2 and3 , the aligner 20 is configured to be applied onto the lower teeth 12,in other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, arespective configuration of the aligner 20 may be applied to the upperteeth 13 of the subject for treating misalignment of at least somethereof—such as the given upper tooth 17. By so doing, the desiredocclusion between the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 may beattained.

According to certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the aligner 20 may be made of a polymer, such as a thermoplasticmaterial. In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the aligner 20 may be made of poly-vinyl chloride (PVC). In yet othernon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the aligner 20 maybe made of polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). Other suitablematerials can also be used to form the aligner 20.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the aligner20 may be manufactured using additive manufacturing techniques, such as3D printing techniques where the aligner 20 is formed by printingaccording to a pre-generated 3D digital model thereof.

In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the aligner20 may be produced by a thermoforming process where (1) an unfinishedaligner is produced, using a preform, on a respective aligner mold (notdepicted) associated with a respective stage of the orthodontictreatment, which is configured to shape the inner surface 22 of thealigner 20; and (2) the unfinished aligner is cut along a predeterminedcut line to remove excess material therefrom, thereby producing thealigner 20, the predetermined cut line defining the at least one edge ofthe channel 26 of the aligner 20.

In specific non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, thealigner 20 may be manufactured in accordance with one or more methodsdescribed in a co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 11,191,618-B1, issued on Dec. 7,2021, and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FORMING A DENTAL APPLIANCE,”the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

As it may become apparent, to produce the aligner 20 for achieving thedesired occlusal relationship between the lower teeth 12 and the upperteeth 13 during the orthodontic treatment, the tooth movements of thesubject's teeth to which the aligner 20 is to be applied to should becarefully planned, based on respective 3D digital models (such as a 3Dmodel 710 depicted in FIG. 7 , for example) of the lower arch form 10and the upper arch form 11, for example, to determine respective forcesapplied to the subject's teeth during respective stages of theorthodontic treatment. For example, the respective 3D digital models ofeach one of the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form 11 of thesubject may be generated using intra-oral scanning techniques.

Thus, as it can be appreciated the process for manufacturing the aligner20 for the subject may involve certain steps that may be implemented bydifferent entities (such as clinics and laboratories, for example)and/or users (such as operators, orthodontic practitioners of differentlevels, and the like). By way of example, (i) accessing currentconfigurations of the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form 11, forexample, based on the respective 3D digital models, may be performed byan intermediary orthodontic practitioner (such as a dentist/orthodontistassistant, a dental/orthodontic nurse, for example). Further, theintermediary orthodontic practitioner may then communicate therespective 3D digital models to an entity running a specific digitaltreatment planning application for (ii) determining a preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan. In some cases, thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan may further needto be (iii) reviewed by a higher-level orthodontic practitioner (forexample, a dentist, an orthodontist, a maxillo-facial surgeon, and thelike), who can further communicate the finalized orthodontic treatmentplan for (iv) to the subject for presentation of the finalizedorthodontic treatment plan thereto and (v) to a laboratory facility forthe manufacturing at least one configuration of the aligner 20 forimplementing the orthodontic treatment.

As it can further be appreciated, the structure of such a workflow forthe manufacturing the aligner 20 may permit at least some of theabove-mentioned users involved therein to work on the orthodontictreatment plan simultaneously, which may cause loss of changes made byat least some of these users further resulting in an ineffectiveorthodontic treatment, damage to the subject's teeth, not to mention,wasted time and resources for implementing such a faulty orthodontictreatment plan.

Thus, to address the above-identified technical problem, non-limitingembodiments of a distributed computer system described herein has beendeveloped. More specifically, the distributed computer system includes aserver communicatively couplable to electronic devices of the usersinvolved in the process of the manufacturing the aligner 20. Accordingto certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver may be configured to host a current version of the orthodontictreatment plan providing collaborative access, through a respectiveelectronic device, to each one of the users.

Such an architecture of the distributed computer system may allow toimplement certain restrictive policies on the server to prevent accessto the orthodontic treatment plan to any of the users while a given onethereof is working on the orthodontic treatment plan. Accordingly, suchan approach to providing the collaborative access to the orthodontictreatment plan may eliminate any chances of version conflicts, therebyimproving effectiveness and efficiency of the process for themanufacturing the aligner 20 and those of the orthodontic treatmentitself.

Further, the efficiency of the process for the manufacturing the aligner20 may further be increased by saving computational resources of thedistributed computer system on unnecessary data transmission by savingonly versions of the orthodontic treatment plan including actual changesmade thereto, and not creating new versions solely in response toaccessing the current version by another user.

In this regard, the architecture of the distributed computer systemdescribed herein allows accumulating, on the server, changes made byparticular users and further take those changes into account whenautomatically generating further orthodontic treatment plans associatedwith those particular users, which may save time on adjusting thefinalized treatment plan and thus translate in even higher efficiency ofthe process for the manufacturing the aligner 20.

The architecture of the distributed computer system and communicationamong different types of users therewithin will be described in greaterdetail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 9 .

Computing Environment

With reference to FIG. 4 , there is depicted a computing environment 100suitable for use with some implementations of the present technology, inaccordance with certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology. The computing environment 100 comprises various hardwarecomponents including one or more single or multi-core processorscollectively represented by a processor 110, a graphics processing unit(GPU) 111, a solid-state drive 120, a random-access memory 130, adisplay interface 140, and an input/output interface 150.

Communication between the various components of the computingenvironment 100 may be enabled by one or more internal and/or externalbuses 160 (e.g. a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, universalserial bus (USB), IEEE 1394 “Firewire” bus, a Small Computer SystemInterface (SCSI) bus, a Serial-AT-Attachment (SATA) bus, etc.), to whichthe various hardware components are electronically coupled.

The input/output interface 150 may be coupled to a touchscreen 190and/or to the one or more internal and/or external buses 160. Thetouchscreen 190 may be part of the display. In some embodiments, thetouchscreen 190 is the display. The touchscreen 190 may equally bereferred to as a screen 190. In the embodiments illustrated in FIG. 1 ,the touchscreen 190 comprises touch hardware 194 (e.g.,pressure-sensitive cells embedded in a layer of a display allowingdetection of a physical interaction between a user and the display) anda touch input/output controller 192 allowing communication with thedisplay interface 140 and/or the one or more internal and/or externalbuses 160. In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the input/output interface 150 may be connected to a keyboard (notshown), a mouse (not shown) or a trackpad (not shown) allowing the userto interact with the computing environment 100 in addition to or insteadof the touchscreen 190. In some embodiments, the computing environment100 may comprise one or more microphones (not shown). The microphonesmay record audio, such as user utterances. The user utterances may betranslated to commands for controlling the computing environment 100.

It is noted some components of the computing environment 100 can beomitted in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology. Forexample, the touchscreen 190 can be omitted, especially (but not limitedto) where the computing environment is implemented as a smart speakerdevice.

According to implementations of the present technology, the solid-statedrive 120 stores program instructions suitable for being loaded into therandom-access memory 130 and executed by the processor 110 and/or theGPU 111. For example, the program instructions may be part of a libraryor an application.

System

With reference to FIG. 5 , there is depicted a schematic diagram of adistributed computer system 500 for manufacturing an orthodonticappliance (such as the aligner 20), in accordance with certainnon-limiting embodiments of the present technology. The distributedcomputer system 500 comprises a server 502 communicatively coupled, viaa communication network 512, to production electronic devices (notseparately numbered) of various users involved in the process ofmanufacturing the aligner 20, such as a first set of users 503, a secondset of users 505, and a third set of users 507.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server502 is implemented as a conventional computer server and may comprisesome or all of the components of the computer system 100 of FIG. 4 . Ina specific non-limiting example, the server 502 is implemented as aDell™ PowerEdge™ Server running the Microsoft™ Windows Server™ operatingsystem, but can also be implemented in any other suitable hardware,software, and/or firmware, or a combination thereof. In the depictednon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server 502 is asingle server. In alternative non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology (not depicted), the functionality of the server 502 may bedistributed and may be implemented via multiple servers.

Further, according to certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, each one of the production electronic devices of the firstset of users 503, the second set of users 505, and the third set ofusers 507 can be any computer hardware that is capable of running asoftware appropriate to the relevant task at hand. To that end, each oneof the production electronic devices may include some or all of thecomponents of the computer system 100 of FIG. 4 . More specifically,some non-limiting examples of the production electronic devices mayinclude personal computers (desktops, laptops, netbooks, etc.),smartphones, tablets, and the like.

Also communicatively coupled to the server 502 is a patient electronicdevice 510 of the subject (not separately labelled in FIG. 5 ). As itcan be appreciated, the patient electronic device 510 can be implementedin a similar fashion to one of the production electronic devices; andmay thus comprise some or all components of the computing environment100 of FIG. 4 .

According to certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the server 502 can be configured to run a digital treatment planningapplication 504. Broadly speaking, the digital treatment application 504can be configured for generating the orthodontic treatment plan for thesubject based on subject's data. The subject's data may include, withoutlimitation, image data pertaining to the subject's intraoral anatomy,such as the respective 3D digital models (such as a 3D digital model 810depicted in FIG. 7 ) of the lower arch form 10 and the lower arch form11, anthropometric parameters associated with the subject, their medicalhistory, and the like. Also, the digital treatment planning application504 can provide functionality for viewing and modifying alreadygenerated orthodontic treatment plans to generate different versionsthereof, as will be described below.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the digitaltreatment planning application 504 can be a client-server application,thereby enabling the server 502 to store a current version of theorthodontic treatment plan of the subject and provide a collaborativeaccess thereto to each one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, and the third set of users 507, via respective productionelectronic devices thereof, which, in turn, can be configured to run aclient version of the digital treatment planning application 504.

In specific non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, thedigital treatment planning application 504 can be a thin-clientapplication with most of its functionality being executed on the server502 and providing only a respective user interface to each one of thefirst set of users 503, the second set of users 505, the third set ofusers 507, and the subject, for example, via a browser application ofeach one of their production electronic devices.

To that end, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,each one of the first set of users 503, the second set of users 505, thethird set of users 507, and the subject may have a respective useraccount with the digital treatment planning application 504 providingthem with access to the current version of the orthodontic treatmentplan from their electronic devices. For example, to log in in theirrespective user account of digital treatment planning application 504from their electronic device, a given user may use a uniquepredetermined set of credentials (such as login and password) associatedtherewith, which they may enter in a login page (not depicted) of thedigital treatment planning application 504 accessible using the browserapplication.

In a specific non-limiting example, the digital treatment planningapplication 504 may be a Vision™ digital treatment planning applicationprovided by SOFTSMILE INC. of 197 NJ-18 #3000, East Brunswick, N.J.08816, United States. It should be expressly understood that othersuitable software applications for planning orthodontic treatments canbe used without departing from the scope of the present technology.

Thus, the server 502 can be configured to manufacture the aligner 20based on inputs provided by representatives of each one of the first setof users 503, the second set of users 505, and the third set of users507. For example, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, a given one of the first set of user 503, using a respectiveproduction electronic device thereof, may access and submit, via thedigital treatment planning application 504, the subject's data to theserver 502 to generate a preliminary version of the orthodontictreatment plan for the subject. In this regard, the first set of users503 may include, for example, low- and middle-level medicalpractitioners, such as orthodontic/dental nurses or orthodontist/dentistassistants.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, agiven one of the second set of users 505 may review and modify, via thedigital treatment planning application 504, the so generated preliminaryversion of orthodontic treatment plan provided by the first set of users503 to generate a finalized version of the orthodontic treatment planfor the subject. For example, the given one of the second set of users505 may be a higher-level medical practitioner, such as, withoutlimitations, a medical doctor, a dentist, an orthodontist, amaxillo-facial surgeon, and the like. The so generated finalized versionof the orthodontic treatment may further be stored as a current versionthereof on the server 502.

Finally, a given one of the third set of users 507 can access thecurrent version of the orthodontic treatment plan for manufacturing, inaccordance therewith, at least one configuration of the aligner 20 forimplementing the orthodontic treatment. As it can be appreciated, thegiven one of the third set of users 507 can, for example, be an operatorof a laboratory for producing orthodontic appliances based on providedorthodontic treatment plans.

Access Distribution

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server502 could be configured to provide access to each one of the first setof users 503, the second set of users 505, the third set of users, andthe subject based on a respective request received from their electronicdevices. For example, once the given user, using their uniquepredetermined set of credentials, has logged in their user account withthe digital treatment planning application 504 as described above, theserver 502 can be configured to provide them with a dedicated interfacefor accessing one or more orthodontic treatment plans available foraccess.

With reference to FIG. 6 , there is depicted an example of a patientlist interface 600 of the digital treatment planning application 504, inaccordance with certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology. As it can be appreciated, the patient list interface 600 caninclude a plurality of records corresponding to currently developedorthodontic treatment plans—such as a first record 602 corresponding toa first orthodontic treatment plan of a first subject and a secondrecord 604 corresponding to a second orthodontic treatment plan of asecond subject. Accordingly, by selecting (such as by clicking on) agiven one of the first record 1002 and the second record 1004 in thepatient list interface 1000, from a respective electronic device, thegiven user may generate a request to access a respective one of thefirst and second orthodontic treatment plans. In response, the server502 could be configured to either grant or prevent access to the givenuser to the respective orthodontic treatment plan in another interface(such as a setup interface 800 described below with reference to FIG. 8) of the digital treatment plan application 504 allowing, for example,reviewing and/or modifying the respective orthodontic treatment plan, aswill be described below.

According to certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the patient list interface 600 may include a plurality of predeterminedfields 603, each of which is indicative of a respective piece of dataassociated with the respective orthodontic treatment plan, such as anidentification number, first and last names of subjects, theirbirthdays, and the like. Although in the depicted embodiments, theplurality of predetermined fields 603 includes seven fields, it shouldbe expressly understood that in other non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, the plurality of predetermined fields 603, dependingon preferences set in the digital treatment planning application 504 bythe given user, may include more predetermined fields, such as, withoutlimitation, ‘Subject's diagnosis’, ‘Subject's time zone’, and the like.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theplurality of predetermined fields 603 may include a status filed 606.According to certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,a respective value of the status field 606 is indicative of whether therespective orthodontic treatment plan is accessible by a respectiveelectronic device of (or otherwise under a respective user account of)the given user of the digital treatment planning application 504 or not.In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, therespective value of the status field 606 may be binary. For example, thecurrent version of the first orthodontic treatment plan may be currentlychecked by an other user; to that end, the server 502 can be configuredto assign a positive value of the status field 606 in the first record602, which can be indicated by a first icon 608 (closed lock). By doingso, the server 502 is configured to restrict access to the currentversion of the first orthodontic treatment plan by the respectiveelectronic device of the given user of the digital treatment planningapplication 504 for modifications. Further, in response to selecting(such as by clicking on), by the given user, the first record 602 havingthe positive value of the status field 606, the server 502 could beconfigured not to open the first orthodontic treatment plan in the setupinterface 800. For example, in some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, by assigning the positive value to the status filed606 in the first record 602, the server 502 can be configured to renderthe first field 602 non-selectable (non-clickable), such as greyed out.In additional non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver 502 can further be configured to generate a pop-up message (notdepicted), such as “The selected orthodontic treatment plan is currentlychecked by another user. Please try again later”, informing the givenuser of the unavailability of the first orthodontic treatment plan.

Additionally or alternatively, when the first record 602 has thepositive value of the status field 606, the server 502 may be configuredto provide access to the first orthodontic treatment plan, however, in a“read only” mode, that is, allowing the given user only to review thecurrent version of the first orthodontic treatment plan in the setupinterface 800 of the digital treatment planning application 504, whiledisabling therein any functionality for making changes.

In another example, the current version of the second orthodontictreatment plan could be currently not checked by any other user; and assuch the server 502 can be configured to assign therein a negative valueof the status field 606, which can be represented by a second icon 610(open lock). Thus, in response to selecting (such as by clicking on), bythe given user, the second record 602 having the negative value of thestatus field 606, the server 502 could be configured to grant therespective request for access to the second orthodontic treatment planand open it in the setup interface 800 allowing the given user furthermodifications of the second orthodontic treatment plan, as will bedescribed below. To that end, as will be described in greater detailbelow, the server 502 can be configured to transmit to the respectiveelectronic device of the given user at least some data indicative of thecurrent version of the second orthodontic treatment plan forpresentation thereof to the given user.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server502 can be configured to set up, via the digital treatment planningapplication 504, certain predetermined rules (such as restrictivepolicies) of access to the current version of the orthodontic treatmentplan defining how the current version of the orthodontic treatment planmay be accessed by each one of the first set of users 503, the secondset of users 505, the third set of users 507, and the subject. Forexample, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, agiven predetermined rule of access may allow accessing the currentversion of the orthodontic treatment plan by whomever is first to accessit.

However, in other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the given predetermined rule of access to the current version of theorthodontic treatment plan may define a sequence of access thereto amongthe given one of the first set of users 503, the given one of the secondset of users 505, and the given one of the third set of users 507. Forexample, the server 502 may be configured to allow accessing the currentversion of the orthodontic treatment plan, sequentially, first, by thegiven one of the first set of users 503; second, by the given one of thesecond set of users 505, and only then by the given one of the third setof users 507.

More specifically, as will be described in greater detail below, thegiven one of the first set of users 503 may create the predeterminedversion of the orthodontic treatment plan; and an indication thereof canfurther be generated in the patient list interface 600 of the digitaltreatment planning application 504, as described above. Further, thegiven one of the third set of users 507, via a respective productionelectronic device, may be able to see a respective record correspondingto the orthodontic treatment plan, and generate the respective requestto the server 502 for access to the orthodontic treatment plan forfurther manufacturing at least one configuration of the aligner 20 inaccordance therewith.

However, as the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment planhas not yet been reviewed by the given one of the second set of users505, the server 502 can be configured to prevent access to theorthodontic treatment plan from the respective production electronicdevice of the given one of the third set of users 507, by inactivatingthe respective record associated therewith in the patient list interface600 (similar to the first record 602 described above) when opened undera user account of the given one of the third set of users 507. Further,once the given one of the second set of users 505 has reviewed andrevised the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan,thereby creating the finalized version thereof, the respective recordassociated with the orthodontic treatment plan in the patient listinterface 600 may thus become available for access (similar to thesecond record 604) by the given one of the third set of users 507.

In other words, the given predetermined rule of access may allow thegiven one of the third set of users 507 to access only the finalizedversion of the orthodontic treatment plan. In this regard, to implementthe given predetermined rule of access, in some non-limiting embodimentsof the present technology, the status field 606 of the patient listinterface 600 may have multiple values. By way of example, and not as alimitation, once the predetermined version has been generated, theserver 502 can be configured to assign a first value of the status field606 in the respective record corresponding to the orthodontic treatmentplan, which may be indicated by an icon “Pending approval” (notdepicted). To that end, the first value of the status filed 606 may beto inactivate the respective record under the user account of the givenone of the third set of users 507, however, make it available under auser account of the given one of the second set of users 505.

In another example, once the given one of the second set of users 505has created the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan, theserver 502 can be configured to assign a second value to the statusfield 606 in the respective record corresponding to the orthodontictreatment plan, which may be for still preventing access from the useraccount of the given one of the third set of users 507 as the server 502may, for example, await an input from the subject. To that end, thesecond value of the status filed 606 may be indicated by one of thefollowing icons (not depicted): “Sent to the client”, “Waiting forpayment”, and the like.

In yet another example, once the server 502 has received the input fromthe patient electronic device 510 of the subject, the server 502 couldfurther be configured to assign a third value to the status field 606 inthe respective record corresponding to the orthodontic treatment plan,thereby allowing access thereto from the user account of the given oneof the third set of users 507. To that end, the third value of thestatus filed 606 may be indicated, in the respective record of thepatient list interface 600 corresponding to the orthodontic treatmentplan, by one of the following icons (not depicted): “Payment received”,“Ready for manufacture”, and the like. In additional non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, based on the given predeterminedrule of access, the server 502 can be configured to proactively request,at each stage of the process for the manufacturing the aligner 20, thatthe respective users access the current version of the orthodontictreatment plan for introducing their inputs thereto. For example, theserver 502 could be configured to send notifications (for example, byemail) to the respective users when their inputs are required.

It should be expressly understood that a number of multiple values ofthe status field 606 is not limited and, in various non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the status field 606 may havemore than three values described above, which may thus be indicated bydifferent respective icons, some of which will be described below.

It should further be noted that other permissions and restrictionsdefined by the given predetermined rule of access can also be envisionedwithout departing from the scope of the present technology. In oneexample, the given predetermined rule may further prioritize requestssubmitted by one users, such as the given one of the second set of users505, concurrently with requests from other users. In another example,the given predetermined rule may further be for aborting access to thecurrent version of the orthodontic treatment plan to any user if aprioritized request has been received and further grant the prioritizedrequest. In yet another example, the given predetermined rule mayfurther grant access to some of the users, such as the given one of thesecond set of users 505, at any stage of the manufacturing the aligner20.

Thus, the given predetermined rule of access may be configured to defineavailability of certain functions in the patient list interface 600 ofthe digital treatment planning application 504 run under each respectiveuser account of the first set of users 503, the second set of user 505,the third set of users 507, and the subject, thereby controlling accessby each of them to the current version of the orthodontic treatment planfrom their respective electronic devices.

How communication among the first set of users 503, the second set ofusers 505, and the third set of users 507 within the distributedcomputer system 500 can be organized for manufacturing the aligner 20will be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 6, 8 , and9.

Communication Network

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, thecommunication network 512 is the Internet. In alternative non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the communication network 512 canbe implemented as any suitable local area network (LAN), wide areanetwork (WAN), a private communication network or the like. It should beexpressly understood that implementations for the communication network512 are for illustration purposes only. How a respective communicationlink (not separately numbered) between each one of the server 502, eachone of the production electronic devices of the first set of users 503,the second set of users 505, and the third set of users 507, as well asthe patient electronic device 510 and the communication network 512 isimplemented will depend, inter alia, on how each one of the server 502,each one of the production electronic devices, and the patientelectronic device 510 is implemented. Merely as an example and not as alimitation, in those embodiments of the present technology where thepatient electronic device 510 is implemented as a wireless communicationdevice such as a smartphone, the communication link can be implementedas a wireless communication link. Examples of wireless communicationlinks include, but are not limited to, a 3G communication network link,a 4G communication network link, and the like. The communication network512 may also use a wireless connection with the server 502 and at leastsome of the production electronic devices.

Generation of a Preliminary Orthodontic Treatment Plan

With reference to FIG. 7 , there is depicted a schematic diagram ofcommunication between the given one of the first set of user 503 and theserver 502 within the distributed computer system 500, in accordancewith certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology.

As alluded to above, in accordance with certain non-limiting embodimentsof the present technology, to generate the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan, the server 502 can be configured to (1)receive, from a first production electronic device 702 of the given oneof the first set of users 503, the subject's data; and (2) based on thesubject's data, generate, using the digital treatment planningapplication 504, the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment.

It should be noted that the distributed computer system 500, includingthe server 502 and the manufacture electronic devices of each one of thefirst set of users 503, the second set of users 505, and the third setof users 507, can be configured for receiving the image data pertainingto the subject's intraoral anatomy of the subject's data from a one ormore other electronic devices (not depicted). Some of such electronicdevices can be used for capturing and/or processing data pertaining tomaxillofacial and/or cranial anatomy of the subject. In certainembodiments, the image data received from such devices is indicative ofproperties of anatomical structures of the subject, including: teeth,intraoral mucosa, maxilla (such as the upper arch form 11), mandible(such as the lower arch form 10), temporomandibular joint, and nervepathways, among other structures. In some non-limiting embodiments ofthe present technology, at least some of the image data is indicative ofproperties of external portions of the anatomical structures, forexample dimensions of a gingival sulcus, and dimensions of an externalportion of a tooth (e.g., a crown of the tooth) extending outwardly ofthe gingival sulcus. In some embodiments, the image data is indicativeof properties of internal portions of the anatomical structures, forexample volumetric properties of bone surrounding an internal portion ofthe tooth (e.g., a root of the tooth) extending inwardly of the gingivalsulcus. Under certain circumstances, such volumetric properties may beindicative of periodontal anomalies which may be factored into anorthodontic treatment plan. In some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, the image data includes cephalometric imagedatasets. In some embodiments, the image data includes datasetsgenerally intended for the practice of endodontics. In some embodiments,the image data includes datasets generally intended for the practice ofperiodontics.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the firstmanufacture electronic device 602 can be configured to receive thesubject's data from an external memory device, for example, via the oneor more internal and/or external buses 160 of the computing environment100 of FIG. 4 .

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the firstmanufacture electronic device 702 may be configured to receive the imagedata associated with the subject directly from an imaging device 704communicatively coupled thereto. Broadly speaking, the first productionelectronic device 702 can be configured to cause the imaging device 704to capture and/or process the image data of the lower teeth 12 and theperiodontium (not depicted) of the subject. In certain non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the image data may include, forexample, one or more of: (1) images of external surfaces of respectivecrown portions of the lower teeth 12, (2) images of an external surfaceof the periodontium including those of the lower gingiva 14, thealveolar mandibular bone (not depicted), and images of superficial bloodvessels and nerve pathways associated with the lower teeth 12; and (3)images of an oral region. By doing so, the imaging device 704 may beconfigured, for example, to capture image data of the lower arch form 10of the subject. In another example, the imaging device may also beconfigured to capture and/or process image data of an upper arch form 11associated with the subject without departing from the scope of thepresent technology. It should be noted that the image data may includetwo-dimensional (2D) data and/or three-dimensional data (3D). Further,in certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the imagedata includes 2D data, from which 3D data may be derived, and viceversa.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the imagingdevice 704 may comprise an intra-oral scanner enabling to capture directoptical impressions of the at least one of the lower arch form 10 andthe upper arch form 11 of the subject.

In a specific non-limiting example, the intraoral scanner can be of oneof the types available from MEDIT, CORP. of 23 Goryeodae-ro 22-gil,Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It should be expressly understood thatthe intraoral scanner can be implemented in any other suitableequipment.

In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the imagingdevice 704 may comprise a desktop scanner enabling to digitize a mold(not depicted) representing the given configuration of the at least oneof the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form 11 associated with therespective stage of the orthodontic treatment. In this regard, the moldmay have been obtained via dental impression using a material (such as apolymer, e.g. polyvinyl-siloxane) having been imprinted with the shapeof the intraoral anatomy it has been applied to. In the dentalimpression, a flowable mixture (i.e., dental stone powder mixed with aliquid in certain proportions) may be flowed such that it may, oncedried and hardened, form the replica.

In a specific non-limiting example, the desktop scanner can be of one ofthe types available from DENTAL WINGS, INC. of 2251, ave Letourneux,Montreal (QC), Canada, H1V 2N9. It should be expressly understood thatthe desktop scanner can be implemented in any other suitable equipment.

In yet other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theimaging device 704 can comprise a 3D laser scanner enabling to obtain arespective point cloud 3D digital model of the at least one of the lowerarch form 10 and the upper arch form 11—such as by scanning the moldthereof and thus registering three-dimensional coordinates of pointsrepresentative of the surface of the mold.

In a specific non-limiting example, the 3D laser scanner can be of oneof the types available from LASER DESIGN of 5900 Golden Hills Drive,Minneapolis, Minn. 55416. It should be expressly understood that thedesktop scanner can be implemented in any other suitable equipment.

In yet other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theimaging device 704 may comprise a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)scanner. Generally speaking, the CBCT scanner comprises software andhardware allowing for capturing data using a cone-shaped X-ray beam byrotating around the subject's head. This data may be used to reconstruct3D digital models of the following regions of the subject's anatomy:dental (teeth and gum, for example); oral and maxillofacial region(mouth, jaws, and neck); and ears, nose, and throat (“ENT”).

In a specific non-limiting example, the CBCT scanner can be of one ofthe types available from 3SHAPE, PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY of HolmensKanal 7, 1060 Copenhagen, Denmark. It should be expressly understoodthat the CBCT scanner can be implemented in any other suitableequipment.

Further, it is contemplated that the first production electronic device702 may be configured for processing of the received image data. Theresulting image data of the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form11 received by the first production electronic device 702 is typicallystructured as a binary file or an ASCII file, may be discretized invarious ways (e.g., point clouds, polygonal meshes, pixels, voxels,implicitly defined geometric shapes), and may be formatted in a vastrange of file formats (for example, STL, OBJ, PLY, DICOM, and varioussoftware-specific, proprietary formats). Any image data file format isincluded within the scope of the present technology.

Thus, having received the subject's data, the first productionelectronic device 702 can be configured to generate a first data packet706 for transmission thereof, via the communication network 512, to theserver 502.

Further, after receiving the first data packet 706, the server 502 canbe configured to generate, based on the subject's data, using thedigital treatment planning application 504, the preliminary version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan. More specifically, the server 502 can beconfigured to preliminarily model tooth movements of at least some ofthe lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 of the subject to targetpositions thereof associated with their alignment. In specificnon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, to determine thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan, the server 502may be configured to apply one or more approaches described in aco-owned U.S. Pat. No. 10,993,782 issued on May 4, 2021, and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING A TOOTH TRAJECTORY,”, the contentof which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, todetermine the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan, theserver 502 can be configured to execute one or more methods described ina co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 11,259,897-B1, issued on Mar. 1, 2022, andentitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AN ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT”,content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server502 may be configured to generate the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan in a form of a of a schedule definingmovements of each of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 of thesubject.

With reference to FIG. 8 , there is depicted the setup interface 800 ofthe digital treatment planning application 504, in accordance withcertain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology.

As it can be appreciated, in some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, the setup interface 800 may include a plannedschedule 802 of the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatmentplan, and the 3D digital model 810 representative of currentconfigurations of the lower arch form 10 and the upper arch form 11 ofthe subject.

In the depicted embodiments of FIG. 8 , the planned schedule 802includes a horizontal axis 804 representative of respective ordinalnumbers of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13; and a verticalaxis 806 representative of a plurality of predetermined treatmentintervals 808 of the orthodontic treatment. Accordingly, each one of thelower teeth 12 and upper teeth 13 may thus be associated with arespective trajectory defining movements thereof along an associatedplurality of segments, within respective ones of the plurality ofpredetermined treatment intervals.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, each of theplurality of predetermined treatment intervals 808 may be associatedwith using a respective configuration of the aligner 20 configured toapply, during a respective one of the plurality of predeterminedtreatment intervals 808, respective forces onto at least one of thelower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 causing them to move alongrespective segments of their associated trajectories. In somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, each one of theplurality of predetermined treatment intervals 808 may be equal andcomprise, for example, 14 days. However, in other non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, based on specifics of aparticular orthodontic treatment, the plurality of predeterminedtreatment intervals 808 may include predetermined treatment intervals ofvarious durations which may be less than or more than 14 days.

Thus, once the server 502 has generated the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan, the server 502 may further be configured tostore it in its local memory (such as the solid-state drive 120 of thecomputing environment 100 of FIG. 4 ) for providing the collaborativeaccess thereto to each one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, and the third set of users 507, via the patient listinterface 600 under their user accounts with the digital treatmentplanning application 504, as described above with reference to FIG. 6 .

For example, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the server 502 can be configured to provide the collaborative access tothe preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan on therespective request submitted, via the patient list interface 600 of thedigital treatment planning application 504, by transmitting at leastsome data indicative of the preliminary version to a requesting one ofthe production electronic devices.

To that end, having received the respective request to access thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan, the server 502can be configured to determine a next one of the given one of the firstset of users 503, the given one of the second set of users 505, and thegiven one of the third set of users 507, to access the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan. To that end, as mentionedabove, the server 502 can be configured to access the givenpredetermined rule of access. For example, based on the givenpredetermined rule of access, the server 502 can be configured todetermine the next user as being the given one of the second set ofusers 505. Further, as mentioned above, the server 502 may further beconfigured to assign the first value to the status field 606 of thepatient list interface 600 described above in the respective recordassociated with the orthodontic treatment plan, thereby granting therespective request only if it has been submitted from a respectiveproduction electronic device of the given one of the second set of users505 (such as a second production electronic device 902 described below).As mentioned further above, in this regard, the first value of statusfield 606 may be indicated, for example, by the icon “Pending approval”(not depicted) in the respective record associated with the orthodontictreatment plan.

To that end, referring back to FIG. 7 , the server 502 can be configuredto generate a second data packet 708 including at least some dataindicative of the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan.The server 502 can further be configured to transmit the second datapacket 708 to the requesting one of the production electronic devicesfor accessing the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment planstored at the server 502 via the setup interface 800, as mentionedabove.

Reviewing and Revising the Preliminary Orthodontic Treatment Plan

With reference to FIG. 9 , there is depicted a schematic diagram ofcommunication between the given one of the second set of users 505 andthe server 502 within the distributed computer system 500, in accordancewith certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology.

As mentioned above, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the given one of the second set of users 505 may requestaccess, via the patient list interface 600, from the second productionelectronic device 1002, to the preliminary version of the orthodontictreatment plan stored on the server 502. To that end, if the preliminaryversion is not checked by any user, the server 502 may be configured totransmit the second data packet 708 to the second production electronicdevice 1002 of the given one of the second set of users 505, therebygranting access thereto to the preliminary version of the orthodontictreatment plan.

As mentioned above, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, to prevent version conflict, during the time of checking thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment by the given one of thesecond set of users 505, the server 502 can be configured to restrictaccess to the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment, via thepatient list interface 600 of the digital treatment planning application504 described above, to any other user, such as that of the first set ofusers 503, the second set of users 505, and the third set of users 507,but the given one of the second set of users 505. By so doing, theserver 502 can be configured to lock the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment for possible corrections thereof from the givenone of the second set of users 505.

Thus, upon receipt of the second data packet 708, the given one of thesecond set of users 505 can gain access to the preliminary version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan for review and possible revisions via thesetup interface 800 of the digital treatment planning application 504.For example, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,based on their experience and expertise, the given one of the second setof users 505 can introduce one or more changes to the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan.

More specifically, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, referring back to FIG. 8 , using the planned schedule 802 inthe setup interface 800, the given one of the second set of users 505can modulate at least some of the plurality of predetermined treatmentintervals 808. Also, using the planned schedule 802, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the given one of thesecond set of users 505 can change a sequence of moving of at least someof the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 of the subject.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the digitaltreatment planning application 504 can be configured to enable the givenone of the second set of users 505 to (i) plan separations (such as byinterproximal reduction) between adjacent ones of the subject's teethusing the 3D digital model 810; (ii) delete and/or add attachments (suchas those for increasing applied forces) on at least some of the lowerteeth 12 and the upper teeth 13; and (iii) plan application ofadditional orthodontic appliances.

Thus, according to some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, such modifications may be reflected onto the plannedschedule 802 in changed movement trajectories of respective ones of thelower teeth 12 and the upper teeth and/or duration of replacementsthereof to their target positions, for which different configurations ofthe aligner 20 may be required.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, forintroducing certain changes, the given one of the second set of users505 may request additional image data (for example, using respectiveactuators in the setup interface 800, not depicted) be submitted by thegiven one of the first set of users 503. To that end, the server 502 canbe configured to assign another value to the status field 606 for therespective record of the patient list interface 600 indicated, forexample, by an icon “Further input required” (not depicted). By doingso, the server 502 can be configured to allow access to the currentversion of the orthodontic treatment plan only by the given one of thefirst set of users 503.

However, in other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the digital treatment planning application 504 may enable, via the setupinterface 800, the given one of the second set of users 505 to rejectthe preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan altogether andrequest complete re-generation thereof by the given one of the first setof users 503 as described above. In these embodiments, the server 502can be configured to assign yet another value to the status field 606 inthe respective record associated with the orthodontic treatment plan ofthe patient list interface 600 indicated, for example, by an icon “To bere-generated based on updated data” (not depicted), thereby allowingaccess only by the given one of the first set of users 503, as well.

Thus, according to some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, by reviewing and revising the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan, the given one of the second set of users 505may generate the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan.

To that end, referring back to FIG. 9 , the second production electronicdevice 902 of the given one of the second set of users 505 may beconfigured to generate a third data packet 904 including data indicativeof the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan fortransmission thereof to the server 502. Further, having received thethird data packet 904, the server 502 can further be configured to storethe finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan in its localmemory.

As mentioned above, according to some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, once the finalized version of the orthodontictreatment plan has been released by the given one of the second set ofusers 505, the server 502 may be configured to provide access to thefinalized version of the orthodontic treatment based on the givenpredetermined rule of access. For example, the server 502 could beconfigured to determine the subject as being the next one to accessorthodontic treatment plan. To that end, based on the respective requestform the patient electronic device 510, the server 502 can be configuredto transmit the third data packet 904 thereto, thereby granting accessto the subject to the finalized version of the orthodontic treatmentplan. As it can be appreciated, in some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, to provide the subject with the most up-to-dateinformation regarding the planned orthodontic treatment, the finalizedversion of the orthodontic treatment plan may also be locked for anychanges by any one of the first set of users 503, the second set ofusers 505, and the third set of users 507 during the time it being ischecked by the subject.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,once the subject has reviewed the finalized version of the orthodontictreatment plan and has provided necessary inputs, the server 502 couldbe configured, based on the predetermined rule of access, to determinethe given one of the third set of users 507 as being the next user toaccess the orthodontic treatment plan, who can further gain accessthereto upon submitting the respective request via the patient listinterface 600, as described above, for manufacturing the at least oneconfiguration of the aligner 20 in accordance with the finalized versionof the orthodontic treatment, which will be described below withreference to FIG. 10 .

Version Control of the Orthodontic Treatment Plan

It should be noted that, in at least some non-limiting embodiments ofthe present technology, the process of developing the orthodontictreatment plan may be iterative with a number of changes being input toa given version of the orthodontic treatment plan by the given one ofthe second set of users 505 at subsequent reviews, which may result inmultiple intermediate versions of the orthodontic treatment plan beforethe finalized version thereof is approved.

According to certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,when storing each new version of the orthodontic treatment plan, theserver 502 could be configured to entirely replace the previous versiontherewith. However, in other non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the server 502 could be configured to save only changes madeto a given previous version of the orthodontic treatment plan.

In this regard, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the server 502 could be configured to apply a hash functionto a metadata structure of a respective new version of the orthodontictreatment plan to determine if any changes have been made to the givenprevious version of the orthodontic treatment plan. It is not limitedhow the hash function applied by the server 502 could be implemented;and in some non-limiting may include, for example, an MD5 hash function,an MD4 has function, a Tiger hash function, a Skein hash function, andthe like.

Thus, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver 502 could be configured to create the respective new version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan provided any changes have been made tothe given previous version thereof. Accordingly, in these embodiments,if, for example, the given one of the second set of users 505 has notmade any changes to the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatmentplan, it may be used as the finalized version of the orthodontictreatment plan.

To that end, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the server 502 may be configured to apply the approach to saving changesmade to each previous version as described above. By so doing, theserver 502 can be configured to save computational resources thereof onsaving, replacing, and transmitting, via the communication network 512,full versions of the orthodontic treatment plan.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver 502 can be configured to save indications of past interactions ofeach one of the second set of users 505 with past orthodontic treatmentplans for developing further orthodontic treatment plans. For example,in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, suchinteractions may include changes made to past orthodontic treatmentplans by each one of the second set of users 505. For example, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server 502 maybe configured to save the changes in association with respective usersthat made them to generate a training set of data including a pluralityof training objects for training a machine-learning algorithm (MLA).According to some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, agiven training object of the training set may include (1) an indicationof a given past user (such as a respective user ID thereof in thedigital treatment planning application 504); (2) an original version ofa given past orthodontic treatment plan for a given past subject, beforethe given past user has made any change thereto; and (3) at least onesubsequent version of the given past orthodontic treatment planincluding at least some past changes made by the given past user.

More specifically, to generate the given training object, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server 502 couldbe configured to analyze the original version of the given pastorthodontic treatment plan and the at least one subsequent versionthereof to register (i) changes in spatial positions (such as respectiveCartesian coordinates) of respective 3D digital models of given pastsubject's teeth, such as within a respective 3D digital model of theirarch forms (similar to the 3D digital model 810, as an example); and (2)indications of respective actions of the given past user in the digitaltreatment planning application 504 that caused those changes.

Accordingly, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology,the server 502 could be configured to train, based on the training setof data, the MLA to generate customized suggests in respect of possiblechanges to be made for the respective users when they access a givenversion of a further orthodontic treatment plan.

By way of example, and not as a limitation, in some non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the MLA could be implementedbased on neural networks (NN), convolutional neural networks (CNN),decision tree models, gradient boosted decision tree based MLA,association rule learning based MLA, Deep Learning based MLA, inductivelogic programming based MLA, support vector machines based MLA,clustering based MLA, Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning basedMLA, representation learning based MLA, similarity and metric learningbased MLA, sparse dictionary learning based MLA, genetic algorithmsbased MLA, and the like. For training the MLA, the server 502 may employa supervised-learning approach without departing from the scope of thepresent technology.

Further, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver 502 can be configured to apply the so trained MLA to providesuggestions to users making changes to the given version of the furtherorthodontic treatment plan via the digital treatment application 504.Referring back to the example of making changes to the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan, once the given one of thesecond set of users 505 gains access to the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan, the server 502 could be configured to applythe trained MLA to generate suggestions in respect of at least somechanges to be made by the given one of the second set of users 505 tothe preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan.

More specifically, if, based on past interactions of the given one ofthe second set of users 505 with the past orthodontic treatment plans,the server 502 has determined that the given one of the second set ofusers 505 prefers using additional orthodontic appliances, such asattachments, by applying the trained MLA, the server 502 may beconfigured to provide, via the digital treatment planning application504, at some point of modifying the preliminary version, a suggestion inrespect of adding one or more attachments to the at least oneconfiguration of the aligner 20. Such a suggestion may not only be ageneral recommendation towards using the attachments; but to thecontrary, the server 502 can be configured, based on the pastinteractions of the given one of the second set of users 505, todetermine that the given one of the second set of users 505 prefersusing the attachments for specific teeth (such as molars, for example);and, using the trained MLA, the server 502 can be configured to providethe suggestions for using the one or more attachments for respectiveones of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 of the subject.

As another example, referring back to FIG. 8 , based on the pastinteractions with the past orthodontic treatment plans, the server 502may be configured to determine that the given one of the second set ofusers 505 prefers extending at least some of the plurality ofpredetermined treatment intervals 808 associated with a specific groupof teeth (such as incisors, for example). Thus, the server 502 canfurther be configured, using the trained MLA, to provide suggestions tothe given one of the second set of users 505 working on the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan to extend the at least some ofthe plurality of predetermined treatment intervals 808 associated withrespective ones of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 of thesubject corresponding to the specific group of teeth.

It should be expressly understood that how the provision of thesuggestions described above is implemented is not limited. For example,in some non-limiting embodiments of the present, a given suggestion maybe provided via a respective screen tip message (not depicted) in thesetup interface 800 of the digital treatment planning application 504while the given one of the second of users 505 is working on thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan. In theseembodiments, the respective screen tip message (not depicted) can betriggered by a predetermined action. For example, the suggestion toextend the at least some of the plurality of predetermined treatmentintervals 808 described above may be provided once the given one of thesecond set of users 505 commences (or finishes) modifying theorthodontic treatment plan in respect of those respective ones of thelower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13 corresponding to the specificgroup of teeth. More specifically, such a suggestion may be provided,without limitation, in response to the given one of the second set ofusers 505 interacting with (selecting, moving, and the like) arespective 3D digital model of at least one tooth corresponding of thespecific group in the 3D digital model 810 or modifying a respective oneof the plurality of predetermined treatment intervals 808 associatedtherewith.

In another example, the server 502 could be configured, based on thepast interactions of the given one of the second set of users 505, tolearn a sequence in which the given one of the second set of users 505usually makes changes to orthodontic treatment plans. In this regard, insome non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server 502can be configured to provide, using the trained MLA, the suggestions oneby one, in accordance with the learnt sequence, before or afterimplementing each following change to the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan.

In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the server502 can be configured to implement the suggestions by default once thegiven one of the second set of users 505 accesses the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan via the setup interface 800 ofthe digital treatment planning application 504. In these embodiments,the server 502 can further be configured to generate a respectivemessage (not depicted) informing the given one of the second set ofusers 505 of implementing the suggestions and further offering to cancelone or more thereof if need be.

Thus, in some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, theserver 502 could be configured to consider preferences in respect ofcorrections to orthodontic treatment plans provided by each one of thesecond set of users 505, thereby learning a specific style thereof, in asense, and further use the data of such preferences to provide furthersuggests to each one of the second set of users 505 when developing thefurther orthodontic treatment plans. This may help to reduce time spenton development of the further orthodontic treatment plans, therebyincreasing overall efficiency of the process for the manufacturing thealigner 20.

Manufacturing the Aligner

With reference to FIG. 10 , there is depicted a schematic diagram ofcommunication between the given one of the third set of users 507 andthe server 502 within the distributed computer system 500, in accordancewith certain non-limiting embodiments of the present technology.

As mentioned above, once the finalized version of the orthodontictreatment plan has been released, the given one of the third set ofusers 507 can request access thereto from a third production electronicdevice 1002, via the patient list interface 600 of the digital treatmentplanning application 504. To that end, the server 502 can be configuredto transmit the third data packet 904 to the third production electronicdevice 1002, thereby providing access to the given one of the third setof user 507 to the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan,in accordance with which the given one of the third set of users 507 canmanufacturer the at least one configuration of the aligner 20. Asfurther mentioned above, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the server 502 can further be configured to assign yetanother value to the status filed 606 in the respective recordcorresponding to the orthodontic treatment plan in the patient listinterface 600, which may be indicated therein, for example, by an icon“Manufacture in progress” (not depicted). To that end, in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, by assigning thisvalue of the status field 606, the server 502 is configured to restrictaccess to the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan by anyone of the given one of the first set of users 503, the given one of thesecond set of users 505, and the subject via the patient list interface600 on their respective electronic devices.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, tomanufacture the at least one configuration of the aligner 20, the givenone of the third set of user 507 can use the third production electronicdevice 1002 running appropriate software (such as CAD/CAM software)configured for generating a respective 3D digital model of the at leastone configuration of the aligner 20 based on the finalized version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan. Further, according to some non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the third production electronicdevice 1002 may be communicatively coupled, via a respectivecommunication link, to a manufacturing device 1004 configured forfabricating the at least one configuration of the aligner 20 based onthe respective 3D digital model thereof.

As described above, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the manufacturing device 1004 may be a 3D printer. In aspecific non-limiting example, the 3D printer can be of one of the typesavailable from SPRINTRAY INC. of 2705 Media Center Drive, Suite #100A,Los Angeles, Calif. 90065. It should be expressly understood that the 3Dprinter can be implemented in any other suitable equipment.

In other non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, themanufacturing device 1004 can be a thermoforming machine. In a specificnon-limiting example, the 3D printer can be of one of the typesavailable from HAMER INC. of Rambla Antoni Gaudi, 108792 La Granada(Barcelona) Spain. It should be expressly understood that thethermoforming machine can be implemented in any other suitableequipment.

It should be noted that in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, additional devices and systems may be communicativelycoupled to the third production electronic device 1002 for executingadditional operations relating to the manufacturing the at least oneconfiguration of the aligner 20. For example, the additional devices andsystems may include those for trimming the at least one configuration ofthe aligner 20 after manufacturing a preform thereof.

In specific non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, thetrimming the at least one configuration of the aligner 20 may beimplemented as described in a co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/704,718 filed on Dec. 5, 2019, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORFORMING PERSONALIZED DENTAL APPLIANCES”, the content of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

Thus, once the at least one configuration of the aligner 20 has beenmanufactured, it may further be shipped to the subject forimplementation of the orthodontic treatment in accordance with thefinalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan. Further, as it canbe appreciated, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the server 502 can be configured to assign yet another valueto the status field 606 in the respective record corresponding to theorthodontic treatment plan in the patient list interface 600 describedabove, thereby allowing the collaborative access to the current versionof the orthodontic treatment in accordance with the sequence of accessdefined by the given predetermined rule described above. By so doing,the server 502 could be configured to allow further possible changes tothe so developed orthodontic treatment plan. For example, this value maybe indicated by an icon “Completed and implemented” (not depicted).

Thus, according to certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, using the digital treatment planning application 504, theserver 502 can be configured to organize the process of manufacturingthe aligner 20 where only one of the first set of users 503, the secondset of users 505, and the third set of users 507 can access the currentversion of the orthodontic treatment plan, stored at the server 502, ata time.

It should be expressly understood that such distribution ofresponsibilities, for the manufacturing the aligner 20, between thefirst set of users 503, the second set of users 505, and the third setof users 507, as amongst single representatives therefrom, as describedabove is provided only for purposes of clarity of explanation and betterunderstanding of the present technology; and, in some non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, any number of users from any ofthe first set of users 503, the second set of users 505, and the thirdset of users 507 can be involved in the process of manufacturing thealigner 20 described above.

Further, users of any one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, and the third set of users 507 and/or users within a givenone of the first set of users 503, the second set of users 505, and thethird set of users 507 involved in the process for the manufacturing thealigner 20 may not be affiliated with a single entity and may thusrepresent different entities (such as different clinics,dental/orthodontic offices, laboratories, and the like). Also, someusers may combine functions of at least some of the first set of users503, the second set of users 505, and the third set of users 507, asdescribed above. For example, a given practitioner may combine functionsof the given one of the first set of users 503 and that of the secondset of users 505.

It should yet further be noted that, in specific non-limitingembodiments of the present technology, the whole process for themanufacturing the aligner 20 can be implemented by a single usercombining functions of one or more of the given one of the first set ofusers 503, the given one of the second set of users 505, and the givenone of the third set of users 507, as described above.

It should further be expressly understood that the approaches describedabove to the version control management of orthodontic treatment plansand the access distribution thereto may also be applied, mutatismutandis, to cases where a given orthodontic treatment plan needs to berevised during the implementation thereof. For example, further stagesof the orthodontic treatment plan may be required to be modified basedon how the subject's teeth have actually been moving during past stagesof the orthodontic treatment. In another example, at some stage, theorthodontic treatment may cause the subject discomfort, which also mayrequire corrections. To that end, new image data pertaining to thesubject's teeth may be obtained, and at least some of the methodsdescribed hereinabove with reference to FIGS. 6 to 9 may be reiteratedgiven the new image data.

Method

Given the architecture and the examples provided hereinabove, it ispossible to execute a method for manufacturing the aligner 20 using thedistributed computer system 500. With reference now to FIG. 11 , thereis depicted a flowchart of a method 1100, according to certainnon-limiting embodiments of the present technology. The method 1100 maybe executed by the server 502 of the distributed computer system 500.

Step 1102: Accessing a Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Planfor the Given Subject from a First Electronic Device Associated with aFirst User of the First Set of Users

The method 1100 commences at step 1102 with the given one of the firstset of users 503 creating the preliminary version of the orthodontictreatment plan. As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 7 , the givenone of the first set of users 503 can create the preliminary version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan using the first production electronicdevice 702 having access to the digital treatment planning application504 run on the server 502. As also mentioned above, the digitaltreatment planning application 504 may be a thin client applicationstored and run on the server 502 and accessible by user thereof via, forexample, browser applications of their electronic devices.

Thus, as described further above with reference to FIG. 7 , in somenon-limiting embodiments of the present technology, the given one of thefirst set of users 503 may access the subject's data of the subject,submit the subject's data to the digital treatment planning application504, by transmitting the first data packet 706 to the server 502, togenerate the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan.

Once the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan has beencreated, the server 502 can be configured to transmit at least some dataindicative thereof in the second data packet 708 to the first productionelectronic device 702 for presentation (and possible corrections) of thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan to the given oneof the first set of users 503. As mentioned above with reference to FIG.8 , the preliminary version may be presented to the given one of thefirst set of users 503 in the setup interface 800 of the digitaltreatment application 504.

The method 1100 thus proceeds to step 1104.

Step 1104: Preventing Access, to the Preliminary Digital OrthodonticTreatment Plan During the Accessing, by Electronic Devices Associatedwith Other Users of the First Set of Users, all Users of the Second Setof Users, and all Users of the Third Set of Users

At step 1104, in some non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, while the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatmentplan is checked by the given one of the first set of users 503, theserver 502 could be configured to restrict access to the orthodontictreatment plan by any other user of the first set of users 503, thesecond set of users 505, the third set of users 507, and the subject.

As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 6 , the server 502 could beconfigured to control access to the current version of the orthodontictreatment plan by any one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, the third set of users 507, and the subject by assigningrespective values of the status field 606 in the respective recordassociated with the orthodontic treatment plan in the patient listinterface 600 of the digital treatment planning application 504.

By so doing, while the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatmentplan is checked by the first one of the first set of users 503, theserver 502 can be configured to make the respective record associatedwith the orthodontic treatment plan in the patient list interface 600inactive (non-selectable) when it is launched form a respective useraccount of any other one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, the third set of users 507, and the subject.

The method 1100 thus advances to step 1106.

Step 1106: Storing the Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan ina Memory of the Server

At step 1106, once the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatmentplan has been created and released by the given one of the first set ofusers 503, according to certain non-limiting embodiments of the presenttechnology, the server 502 can be configured to store the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan in its local memory (such asthe solid-state drive 120 of the computing environment 100 of FIG. 4 ).

The method 1100 hence advances to step 1108.

Step 1108: On Receipt of a Request to Access the Stored PreliminaryDigital Orthodontic Treatment Plan from any User of the First Set ofUsers, Second Set of Users and Third Set of Users, Accessing aPredetermined Rule of Access, and Determining a Next User of the FirstSet of Users, Second Set of Users and Third Set of Users to ProvideAccess to the Stored Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan

At step 1108, the server 502 could be configured to receive a request toaccess the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan from agiven one of the first set of users 503, the second set of users 505,and the third set of users 507. As mentioned above, the request may besubmitted by the given one of the first set of users 503, the second setof users 505, and the third set of users 507, under their respectiveuser account, by selecting the respective record associated with theorthodontic treatment plan in the patient list interface 600 of thedigital treatment planning application 504.

To that end, the server 502 can be configured to access the givenpredetermined rule of access, as described above, to determine the nextone to access the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan.For example, in accordance with the given predetermined rule of access,the server 502 can be configured to determine the next one to access thepreliminary version as being the given one of the second set of users505.

As mentioned hereinabove with reference to FIG. 5 , the given one of thesecond set of users 505 may be a higher-level medical practitioner, suchas, without limitations, a medical doctor, a dentist, an orthodontist, amaxillo-facial surgeon, and the like. Thus, the given one of the secondset of users 505, based on their experience and expertise, can reviewand revise the preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan togenerate the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plandefining the at least one configuration of the aligner 20.

Thus, the method 1100 advances to step 1110.

Step 1110: Providing Access to an Electronic Device of the DeterminedNext User, a Copy of the Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment PlanWhilst Retaining the Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan inthe Memory

At step 1110, once the server 502 has determined, in accordance with thegiven predetermined rule of access, the next one to access thepreliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan as being the givenone of the second set of users 505, the server 502 may be configured toassign the first value to the status field 606 in the patient listinterface 600 to make the respective record associated with theorthodontic treatment active for selection only under the user accountof the given one of the second set of users 505.

Thus, the given one of the second set of users 505 may further accessthe preliminary version of the orthodontic treatment plan, from thesecond production electronic device 902 thereof, in the setup interface800 to make one or more changes to the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan, as described above with reference to FIG. 9. For example, via the setup interface 800 of the digital treatmentplanning application 504, the given one of the second set of users 505may (i) plan separations (such as by interproximal reduction) betweenadjacent ones of the subject's teeth using the 3D digital model 810;(ii) delete and/or add attachments (such as those for increasing appliedforces) on at least some of the lower teeth 12 and the upper teeth 13;and (iii) plan application of additional orthodontic appliances.

In some non-limiting embodiments of the present technology, while thegiven one of the second set of users 505 is working on the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan, the server 502 can beconfigured to provide to them suggestions in respect of at least some ofthe changes to be made to the preliminary version of the orthodontictreatment plan.

As mentioned above, in accordance with some non-limiting embodiments ofthe present technology, to provide the suggestions, the server 502 canbe configured to apply the MLA that has been trained, based on past userinteractions with past orthodontic treatment plans as described above,to predict changes to be made by a specific user, such as the given oneof the second set of users 502. By so doing, the server 502 can beconfigured to provide suggestions to the given one of the second set ofusers 505 considering their preferences towards developing orthodontictreatment plans.

Thus, by introducing the one or more changes to the preliminary versionof the orthodontic treatment plan, the given one of the second set ofusers 505 may create the finalized version of the orthodontic treatmentplan, according to which the at least one configuration of the aligner20 may further be manufactured. To that end, as mentioned above, thesecond production electronic device 902 may be configured to generatethe third data packet 904 including data indicative of the finalizedversion for transmission thereof to the server 502.

The method 1100 thus advances to step 1112.

Step 1112: Determining Whether Changes have been Made to the Copy of thePreliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan by Applying a HashFunction to a Meta Data Structure of the Copy of the Preliminary DigitalOrthodontic Treatment Plan, and if Changes have been Made to the Copy ofthe Preliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan, Saving Those Changesin the Memory as a New Version of the Preliminary Digital OrthodonticTreatment Plan

Further, at step 1112, according to certain non-limiting embodiments ofthe present technology, having received the third data packet 904, theserver 502 may be configured not to replace the preliminary version ofthe orthodontic treatment plan entirely with the finalized version, butrather save only changes made to the preliminary version of theorthodontic treatment plan as the finalized version thereof. To thatend, as described above, the server 502 can be configured to apply thehash function to a metadata structure of the finalized version of theorthodontic treatment plan to determine if changes to the preliminaryversion have been made. It is not limited how the hash function appliedby the server 502 could be implemented; and in some non-limiting mayinclude, without limitation, an MD5 hash function, an MD4 has function,a Tiger hash function, a Skein hash function, and the like.

Accordingly, in these embodiments, if, for example, the given one of thesecond set of users 505 has not made any changes to the preliminaryversion of the orthodontic treatment plan, it may be used as thefinalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan.

In those embodiments where a number of intermediate versions precedes tothe finalized version of the orthodontic treatment plan, such as whenother ones of the second set of users provide their respective changesto the preliminary version, in some non-limiting embodiments of thepresent technology, the server 502 may be configured to apply theapproach to saving changes made to each previous version as describedabove. By so doing, the server 502 can be configured to savecomputational resources thereof on saving, replacing, and transmitting,via the communication network 512, full versions of the orthodontictreatment plan.

The method 1100 thus proceeds to step 1114.

Step 1114: Obtaining Input Regarding the Saved New Version of thePreliminary Digital Orthodontic Treatment Plan being a Given FinalizedOrthodontic Treatment Plan, and Providing Access to a Given User of theThird Set of Users to the Given Finalized Orthodontic Treatment Plan forManufacturing the Orthodontic Appliance According to at Least a Portionof the Given Finalized Orthodontic Treatment Plan

Further, once the finalized version of the orthodontic treatment planhas been saved, the server 502 can be configured to determine, inaccordance with the given predetermined rule of access, the next user toaccess the orthodontic treatment plan as being the given one of thethird set of users 507. Accordingly, by assigning the respective valueto the status filed 606 in the patient list interface 600, the server502 can be configured to make the respective record therein associatedwith the orthodontic treatment plan available for selection only underthe user account of the given one of the third set of users 507.

Thus, as described above with reference to FIG. 10 , the given one ofthe third set of users may access the finalized version of theorthodontic treatment plan from the third production electronic device1002 thereof for manufacturing the at least one configuration of thealigner 20.

The method 1100 thus terminates.

Modifications and improvements to the above-described implementations ofthe present technology may become apparent to those skilled in the art.The foregoing description is intended to be exemplary rather thanlimiting. The scope of the present technology is therefore intended tobe limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.

1. A distributed computer system for manufacturing an orthodonticappliance for a subject, the system comprising: a server communicativelycouplable to electronic devices associated with sets of users, the setsof users comprising: a first set of users for providing preliminaryorthodontic treatment plans for subjects, a second set of users forproviding input to the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and athird set of users for manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implementat least a portion of finalized orthodontic treatment plans, thefinalized orthodontic treatment plans being based on a given preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan and a given input from a user of the secondset of users to the given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan; theserver having a processor configured to execute a method, the methodcomprising, for a given subject: accessing a preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan for the given subject from a first electronicdevice associated with a first user of the first set of users; storingthe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in a memory of theserver; on receipt of a request to access the stored preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan from any user of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users, accessing a predeterminedrule of access, and determining a next user of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users to provide access to thestored preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan; providing accessto an electronic device of the determined next user to a copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan whilst retaining thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in the memory; preventingaccess, to the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan during theproviding access thereto by the electronic device of the determined nextuser, by an electronic device associated with any other user of any oneof the first set of users, the second set of users, and the third set ofusers; determining whether changes have been made to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan; and in response todetermining that changes have been made to the copy of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan, saving those changes in the memoryas a new version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan,the saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan being a given finalized orthodontic treatment plan; and providingaccess to a given user of the third set of users to the given finalizedorthodontic treatment plan for manufacturing the orthodontic applianceaccording to at least a portion of the given finalized orthodontictreatment plan.
 2. The distributed computer system of claim 1, whereinthe determining whether the changes have been made to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan comprises applying a hashfunction to a meta data structure of the copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan.
 3. The distributed computer system of claim2, wherein the hash function comprises a sum of md5 hashes.
 4. Thedistributed computer system of claim 1, wherein after the new version ofthe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan is saved, on receiptof a request to access the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan from another given user of the first set of users, the second setof users and the third set of users, accessing the predetermined rule ofaccess, and determining a next other user to provide access to the savednew version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan. 5.The distributed computer system of claim 1, further comprising, for agiven user of the second set of users, applying a trained machinelearning algorithm to provide suggested inputs to the preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan according to preferences of the given user.6. The distributed computer system of claim 1, further comprisingtraining a machine learning algorithm on orthodontic treatment planpreferences of a given user of the second set of users for providingsuggested inputs to preliminary orthodontic treatment plans according tothose preferences.
 7. The distributed computer system of claim 1,wherein the second set of users are orthodontic dentists or doctors. 8.The distributed computer system of claim 1, wherein certain users may beassociated with more than one of the first set of users, second set ofusers and third set of users.
 9. A server for manufacturing anorthodontic appliance for a subject, the server being communicativelycouplable to electronic devices associated with sets of users, the setsof users comprising: a first set of users for providing preliminaryorthodontic treatment plans for subjects, a second set of users forproviding input to the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and athird set of users for manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implementat least a portion of finalized orthodontic treatment plans, thefinalized orthodontic treatment plans being based on a given preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan and a given input from a user of the secondset of users to the given preliminary orthodontic treatment plan; theserver including:  a processor and  a non-transitory memory storinginstructions,  the processor, upon executing the instructions, beingconfigured to: provide access to a preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan for a given subject by a first electronic deviceassociated with a first user of the first set of users; store thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan in the non-transitorymemory; on receipt of a request to access the stored preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan from any user of the first set of users,second set of users and third set of users, access a predetermined ruleof access to determine a next user of the first set of users, second setof users and third set of users to provide access to the storedpreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan; provide access to a copyof the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan by an electronicdevice of the determined next user, whilst retaining the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan in the non-transitory memory; whileproviding access to the copy of preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan by the electronic device of the determined next user,prevent access to the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan byan electronic device associated with any other user of any one of thefirst set of users, the second set of users, and the third set of users;determine whether changes have been made to the copy of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan; and in response to determining thatchanges have been made to the copy of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan, save the changes in the non-transitorymemory as a new version of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatmentplan, the saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan being a given finalized orthodontic treatment plan; andprovide access to a given user of the third set of users to the givenfinalized orthodontic treatment plan for manufacturing the orthodonticappliance according to at least a portion of the given finalizedorthodontic treatment plan.
 10. The server of claim 9, wherein todetermine whether the changes have been made to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, the processor isconfigured to apply a hash function to a meta data structure of the copyof the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan.
 11. The server ofclaim 9, wherein after the new version of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan is saved, on receipt of a request to accessthe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan from another givenuser of the first set of users, the second set of users and the thirdset of users, the processor is further configured to access thepredetermined rule of access to determine a next other user to provideaccess to the saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan.
 12. The server of claim 9, wherein, for a given user ofthe second set of users, the processor is further configured to apply atrained machine learning algorithm to provide suggested inputs to thepreliminary orthodontic treatment plan according to preferences of thegiven user.
 13. The server of claim 9, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to train a machine learning algorithm on orthodontictreatment plan preferences of a given user of the second set of usersfor providing suggested inputs to preliminary orthodontic treatmentplans according to those preferences.
 14. A method of manufacturing anorthodontic appliance for a subject, the method executable by a serverincluding a processor, the server communicatively couplable toelectronic devices associated with sets of users, the sets of userscomprising: a first set of users for providing preliminary orthodontictreatment plans for subjects, a second set of users for providing inputto the preliminary orthodontic treatment plans, and a third set of usersfor manufacturing orthodontic appliances to implement at least a portionof finalized orthodontic treatment plans, the finalized orthodontictreatment plans being based on a given preliminary orthodontic treatmentplan and a given input from a user of the second set of users to thegiven preliminary orthodontic treatment plan; the method comprising, fora given subject: providing, by the processor, access to a preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan for the given subject by a firstelectronic device associated with a first user of the first set ofusers; storing, by the processor, the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan in a memory of the server; on receipt of a request toaccess the stored preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan fromany user of the first set of users, second set of users and third set ofusers, accessing, by the processor, a predetermined rule of access todetermine a next user of the first set of users, second set of users andthird set of users to provide access to the stored preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan; providing, by the processor, access to anelectronic device of the determined next user, a copy of the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan whilst retaining the preliminarydigital orthodontic treatment plan in the memory; preventing access, tothe preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan during the providingaccess thereto by the electronic device of the determined next user, byan electronic device associated with any other user of any one of thefirst set of users, the second set of users, and the third set of users;determining, by the processor, whether changes have been made to thecopy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, and inresponse to determining that changes have been made to the copy of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan, saving those changes inthe memory as a new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan, the saved new version of the preliminary digitalorthodontic treatment plan being a given finalized orthodontic treatmentplan; and providing, by the processor, access to a given user of thethird set of users to the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan formanufacturing the orthodontic appliance according to at least a portionof the given finalized orthodontic treatment plan.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the determining whether the changes have been made tothe copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan comprisesapplying, by the processor, a hash function to a meta data structure ofthe copy of the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the hash function comprises a sum of md5hashes.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein after the new version of thepreliminary digital orthodontic treatment plan is saved, on receipt of arequest to access the preliminary digital orthodontic treatment planfrom another given user of the first set of users, the second set ofusers and the third set of users, accessing, by the processor, thepredetermined rule of access to determine a next other user to provideaccess to the saved new version of the preliminary digital orthodontictreatment plan.
 18. The method of claim 14, further comprising, for agiven user of the second set of users, applying a trained machinelearning algorithm to provide suggested inputs to the preliminaryorthodontic treatment plan according to preferences of the given user.19. The method of claim 14, wherein a given one of the second set ofusers is one of an orthodontist, a dentist, and a doctor.
 20. The methodof claim 14, wherein certain users may be associated with more than oneof the first set of users, second set of users and third set of users.